Recommendation 19

UKEF said that its biggest problem is raising awareness with businesses and among the relationship managers of the banks it works with to provide export finance. UKEF encourages banks to lend by offering to guarantee up to 80% of their risk exposure, so if a bank is prepared to lend £100,000 to a company, then with the UKEF guarantee it could lend up to £500,000 to the company.44 UKEF has a marketing budget and has developed an awareness-raising campaign called Exporters’ Edge. UKEF informed us that, since the start of the campaign, awareness among small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) has risen from 20% to 31%.45 We asked whether UKEF undertakes a customer survey. UKEF informed us that, because it has so few customers, it does not survey them directly and instead it regularly talks to trade associations.46